Aref, U.S. Pat. No. 3,039,406, describes a cyclone furnace wherein, as shown in FIG. 2 thereof, the outlets of vertically spaced air nozzles are located at the same radial distance from the longitudinal axis of the furnace.
Giles, U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,951, describes a cyclone separator which burns and separates tangentially-admitted gas-borne solid waste.
Neither of the foregoing patents describes the present invention.
Processes for separating particulate matter from contaminated gaseous media are well known. In one such process, a contaminated gaseous medium containing particulate matter is passed through a swirl-inducing zone. The resulting swirling gaseous medium is thereafter introduced into a cyclonic separation zone adjacent the inner surface of the zone to (i) separate at least a portion of the particulate matter from the contaminated gaseous medium and (ii) form a gaseous product which is at least partially depleted in the particulate matter. The gaseous product is thereafter removed from the separation zone through an exhaust flow zone disposed radially inwardly of the swirl-inducing zone. It is also known that the foregoing steps can be carried out continuously and simultaneously, whereby the process can be carried out continuously. However, the process described above has not been entirely satisfactory from the standpoint of separation efficiency.
It has now been found that substantial increases in separation efficiency of the above-described separation process are obtained by practice of this invention which provides an improvement of the process. In the improvement, a substantially contaminant-free gaseous medium is employed between the zone for introduction of the contaminated gaseous medium and the exhaust flow zone.